Born: 22 July 1854 [Adelaide, South Australia]
Died: 13 February 1938 [Adelaide, South Australia]
Fiveash was credited with introducing the art of china painting to South Australia. Around 1900 Fiveash spent two years overseas, but otherwise she lived her whole in the Fiveash family home in North Adelaide. Prior to her departure to England, the governor of South Australia, Lord Tennyson, and businessman Robert Barr Smith purchased a portfolio of Fiveash's work and donated it to state institutions so that her work would be preserved as part of the state's heritage. In 1937 Fiveash donated a collection of her work to the State Library of South Australia. She continued painting and sketching until a few years before her death when bad eye sight meant that she could no longer carry out the detailed work.
c. 1899: South Australian Governor, Lord Tennyson, and Robert Barr Smith purchased a portfolio of Fiveash's work to be preserved for the state
1937: Fiveash donated a collection of her work to the State Library of South AustraliaBiven, Rachel. Some forgotten, some remembered: women artists of South Australia, Norwood, S.A.: Sydenham Gallery, 1976
Fiveash, Rosa. Australian Orchids: a collection of paintings, Text by Noel Lothian, Adelaide: Rigby, 1974
Fiveash, Rosa. Paintings of Australian flowers, PRG 403
Phipps, Jennifer. Artists' Gardens - flowers and gardens in Australian art 1780s-1980s, Sydney: Bay Books, 1986
Sims, Eric. 'Rosa Fiveash: a supplement', South Australian naturalist, vol. 55, no. 1 (September, 1980), pp. 12-14
Australian Dictionary of Biography: Search for Rosa Fiveash
Australian Women's Register: Search for Rosa Fiveash
State Library of South Australia: Treasures Wall exhibition: Paintings of Australian flowers